Originally Posted by
GSP848
I'm a private pilot, almost done with Instrument. I'm 27, married, one little one and want some more. I am currently a police officer and make about 70k. Although I want a good return on my investment getting into this career, my plan with my wife has always been to prioritize family and QOL over crazy money, potential upgrades, etc. until all our kids would be older and I am more than okay with that.
I've done all my training through mom and pop shops while keeping my full time job for the money and benefits. Full time work and part time flying is working alright for training but I don't believe its a viable option for getting to 1500. A flight before work every day will take 3-4 years to get to 1500 hrs.....I want to instruct full time when I'm able to but obviously with a family, I can't really take the "hope nothing happens" strategy for health insurance and my wife is concerned about the pay cut I will take.
She has it in her head that I should just instruct part time and keep my job like I have been doing, but like I said.....that's one student before work every day with no days off for 3-4 years.......She doesn't seem to understand. Are there some instructor jobs out there with some kind of benefits or are they all 1099 type employment? As long as I have basic benefits for the family covered, we can find a way to make the pay cut work for the year or two that it takes. Any thoughts on that and advice on how to help her understand that 4 years to 1500 isn't a real option?
I don't know what state you are in but is there part time Police Officer work in the area? At least in my state we have tons of opportunities for Sworn Officers to work part time. So maybe you can flip the script and CFI full time and PO part time. If not you can look for part time jobs that offer benefits to keep insurance. That's what I had to do, I found a part time job that offers full benefits so that when I start training full time this summer my family won't be without medical insurance.